NEWSCHANNEL 3 INVESTIGATION: FBI Probe Inside DA’s Office 2 Years After Investigator’s Murders-Suicide
Nearly two years ago, Riverside County District Attorney Investigator David McGowan and five members of his family were found dead at his home in the mountains.
Investigators ruled the scene as a murder-suicide in which McGowan killed his wife, three children, and his mother before killing himself. And still to this day, there has been no answer as to why those deaths happened.
Now, McGowan’s former partner is coming forward with details behind the dead investigators job leading up to his death. All of this alleges wrongful termination and witness intimidation in the County’s D.A.’s office.
Luis Bolaños, McGowan’s former partner, says McGowan was under pressure from his superiors over an investigation involving police officers in the Desert Hot Springs police department.
In that investigation, four DHS officers lost their jobs in 2003 for allegedly filing a false police report. Bolaños says McGowan believed the officers were innocent but was being pressured by bosses to say they were guilty.
“He didn’t know what to do,”Bolaños said. “He didn’t want to work the overtime he was working. He felt he was stuck between doing the right thing and following a direct order.”
Bolaños faced troubles of his own, in which he was fired and arrested on domestic violence and perjury charges. He was later cleared and exonerated.
Bolaños now is fighting for his job back.
The FBI is investigating cases of wrongful termination and intimidation by the DA’s office in Indio.
Though, the FBI office is neither confirming nor denying, an FBI source tells NewsChannel 3 the investigation has gone to a second higher level.
DA office spokesperson Ingrid Wyatt responded saying they do not comment on employment actions or any allegations contained therein.
Another former DA’s office investigator told NewsChannel 3 that McGowan talked to him days before the murder-suicide.
He said that while they and McGowan made work plans for the next few days, McGowan had told him that he wasn’t going to be the go-to guy in the department anymore, that all the extra work he had done was good for nothing. He said that he planned to spend more time with his family.
Other former DA investigators who claim they were wrongfully terminated are now talking to the FBI.
Newschannel 3 has also talked to a recently retired FBI agent.
He says his Palm Springs office was used for multiple interviews by FBI agents and people involved with this case.
It has now gone beyond the first initial phase of investigation according to the FBI agent, who asked that his identity be withheld.
